


Tails and the Mean Bean Machine

by SkyWrites



Category: Puyo Puyo (Video Games), Sonic the Hedgehog (Video Games), Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: Action/Adventure, Chemical Plant, Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, Gen, Humor, Sonic Mania
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-29
Updated: 2020-01-29
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:14:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22462417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SkyWrites/pseuds/SkyWrites
Summary: Based on Sonic Mania's Chemical Plant boss.Tails finds himself trapped in a game of Puyo Puyo vs Dr. Robotnik. He's never played, and the stakes are high. Lose and you and your friends die. It doesn't sound very fair, but Tails is up for the challenge!
Comments: 2
Kudos: 18





	Tails and the Mean Bean Machine

Boing!

“Where do I go?!”

Boing!

“This way?? No?”

Boing!

“This is SO stupid.”

Boing!

“Sonic…”

Boing!!!

“Not now, Tails! I think I just press this syringe thing… wait I already pressed that… maybe I go left?”

Boing!

Tails let out a defeated sigh, watching his blue hero bounce over and over against the steel walls of Chemical Plant. Or at least… some form of Chemical Plant. This wasn’t really Chemical Plant. They destroyed it some time back, Tails was sure! And this wasn’t rebuilt either! It also wasn’t time travel… things were just… different.

Boing!

“Argh, I went left! There’s nothing there!” Sonic yelled, frustrated. “This is why I never go left! But I can’t go right either!”

Tails looked up where a small trail of rings had been. Sonic quickly nabbed them up in his haste to go right, not noticing that they were trying to point up into another tube-transfer system. It was clearly the only path, but…

For once, seriously, for ONCE, Sonic noticed Tails. His eyes noticed Tails’ and the direction they were looking. Those same eyes shone like Chaos Emeralds. The one time!! Tails didn’t actually want Sonic to notice that…

“So _that’s_ where I go!”

“Sonic, I don’t think…”

Boing! Smash! Crash! Fwump!

Aaand he was already gone. Only Sonic the Hedgehog would happily jump into a tube system that was meant to transport deadly chemicals. And only Miles Tails Prower would follow right after, to make sure he didn’t hurt himself.

It wasn’t his most favorite sensation. Cramped in a tiny little tube, shooting through the plant at high speeds, the stench of ozone invading his lungs. But further ahead, he could hear Sonic hooting and hollering, having just generally a great time. It was hard to be scared.

At some point, something clicked. The tubes diverged. Sonic went down one tube while Tails was forced into another. His heart spiked, but before he could worry, he found himself spat out against a tiny metal platform.

Unluckily, the pink chemicals left him slippery, tossing him off the contraption. With a yelp, he twirled his famous tails together as he always did and flew back onto the one safe space he had in this little glass room. Just what was this place? Clearly a trap, but where was Sonic?

Tails looked behind him and saw Sonic land with a wet thud into a chamber across the way, a glass pane between them. There didn’t seem to be an exit, and there were no levers or buttons there. As per usual, Sonic’s instinct was too just spin around the room like a maniac, looking for a way out, but nothing seemed to work.

“Well well well!” a familiar yet annoying voice boomed in from the other side of Tails. “I knew you would fall for my trap, Sonic!” His laughter echoed against the steel plated walls, about as empty and vapid as he was.

“Robotnik!” Tails growled, eyes searching for anything he could hack, anything he could take control of. Sonic continued to spin around the tiny chamber uselessly, smashing into the glass panel with no effect. “This is a dirty trick even for you!”

Across the way, Dr. Robotnik’s laughs came to a sudden halt, his goggles dropping down his enormous mustached nose. Beady little eyes fell on Tails, and that trademark grin of his transformed into a mean gritting machine.

“What?! It’s just that stupid little fox boy? I programmed this thing to capture Sonic in here! Any other unwanted ‘friends’ were meant to be tossed over there!”

“My name is Tails, and you know that!” he said, frustrated to no end.

Dr. Robotnik fixed his goggles, a devious glare bouncing off those devilish blues. “It is no matter! How I deal with my rival is of little consequence so long as he is dealt with!”

“Sonic doesn’t even think of you as a rival…”

“Shut up!” Robotnik spat, his dramatic flair spoiled again. “Heed me!” He cleared his throat and began once more, placing one of his overly long legs atop the control panel. “Welcome to your final moments and my finest creation! Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine! Hohohoho!!!”

“Mean Bean Machine?” Tails repeated, dumbstruck. There weren’t giant crushers anywhere to be found, no lasers to be shot, no spikes meant for stabbing. There weren’t even any beans! “What kind of name is that?”

“It’s a brilliant name! Much better than the original!”

Tails sighed. “So you stole the design from someone else.”

“Borrowed! And!! Improved!” Dr. Robotnik slammed his fists into the control panel. “What would you know about genius, boy?! I’m sure Sonic would have appreciated the name!”

Tails looked over to the hero in blue, the famous hedgehog known for his quick wits and lightning fast reflexes. Sonic was laying on the floor, legs bouncing in annoyance, lounging his head on his elbow. Somehow, Tails figured Sonic would be even less impressed.

“Can we move this along?” Tails asked, tired of seeing the fat man prance in his own self-worth.

“The mouth on you! Sonic’s a terrible influence!” Dr. Robotnik growled. With an exaggerated motion, he shrugged it off, pretending like it didn’t burn him up inside. It did. “Fine then! I’ll give you the quick version. I challenge you to a game of wits! Puyo Pu-er, Mean Bean Machine! Whoever wins gets to live! Whoever loses, doesn’t!”

Tails noticed their platforms dangling precariously over some acidic pink goop. Even Dr. Robotnik’s! “I get the feeling you won’t honor your promise.” 

Dr. Robotnik huffed, his mustache flaring with the motion. “Just because I’ve been trying to kill you doesn’t mean I’m a cheat! Besides, there’s no way you’d beat me at my _own_ game! If I lost to you, well, I deserve to die, don’t I? It’d be downright embarrassing to lose to a stupid child! That’s why I’m willing to bet my life on it!”

Tails didn’t buy it for a second. “Right.”

But for whatever reason, Dr. Robotnik certainly bought _that_. “I’m glad you understand! Now before we begin, it seems there is one last pest to deal with…”

Police sirens blared outside the steel walls, somehow reaching even here. Other alarms rung, and red lights darted across silver steel, highlighting everything in a violent ruby reverie. With a crash, bang, smash, punch, another punch, a splash, a gasp, some yelling, and another punch, Knuckles barreled into Sonic, covered in pink goop.

“Aha! I found my way through!” Knuckles shouted, splashing his shoes in the now rising chemicals.

Sonic sputtered, trying to shake the pink off his blue spines. “You knucklehead, you just dug your way into the prison with me except you sprung a leak!”

“Shut up! What, you think a little glass is going to stop me?” Knuckles chuckled, flexing his weirdly nonexistent muscles. With a powerful punch, he slammed his fist into the glass. Nothing happened.

Sonic smirked.

“I said shut up!”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“I can _hear_ your smug look!”

“Hey, if we’re gonna drown in chemicals, I’m at least gonna feel a little smug.”

“You got trapped in here same as me!”

“At least I didn’t doom myself to stanky pink water!”

“Oh, sure, coming from the guy who can’t swim, real cute!”

“Swimming wouldn’t help me here anyway!”

“I’ll be the one laughing when I’m treading water and you’re gasping for air, idiot!”

“I’ll spend my last bits of air laughing underwater at you for calling _me_ an idiot, idiot!”

Tails let out yet another sigh. They were going to die if he didn’t get them out of this, weren’t they? Sonic and Knuckles weren’t very concerned with the rising liquids. They would be soon… especially Sonic.

“Looks like those fools made this a bit more interesting, hm?” Dr. Robotnik hissed through a toothy sneer. “Better win before your friends die an honestly pretty terrible death! I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy, hohohoho!”

“Why don’t you stop it then?” Tails asked harshly.

“Eh.” Robotnik shrugged, twirling like a graceless egg through space. He slammed his finger on a big red button in a grandiose manner for the millionth time. Tails rolled his eyes.

Suddenly the room roared to life, steam hissing, gears turning, metal scratching. To his front, Tails found a big empty square glass plane. A few squishy bean things spat out of a tube, floating down slowly. Something sparked in his mind and Tails fiddled with the levers, soon realizing he had complete control over these sad bean creatures.

“Good luck, fox boy! You’re going to need it!” Dr. Robotnik said through a cackle, his arms pumping as he smashed his levers up and down and left and right. Bean creatures slammed down on his screen, forming patterns that Tails couldn’t quite understand yet.

Tails looked over to Sonic and Knuckles, hoping for a bit of guidance.

“It looks like Tetris! Just make a big line out of those weird bean things!” Sonic yelled, pointing rapidly between beans. For one, Sonic was terrible at Tetris, and two, this was certainly not Tetris.

“Slam the Puyos down really hard! Smush ‘em!” Knuckles screamed, punching the glass. “Wait no, did you try just breaking the controls?” None of that was a good idea.

“Put the blue ones down there!”

“No, put the red ones there!”

“Shut up, Knuckles, you don’t know what you’re talking about!”

“I at least know they’re called Puyos!”

“How would you even know that?”

“I’m _cultured_ unlike you!”

Tails tried his best to tune his friends out.

“Now get ready for my ultimate attack!” Robotnik crowed, his grin practically as wide as his mustache. It was freaky and gross. A line of Puyos matched together, and a red Puyo from above fell after the blue ones matched and then that matched _another_. Tails gasped at the implications.

‘ _YEEHAW_!’ a strange voice said as a blast of light hit Tails’ panel. After a second, a few bits of gray trash fell onto his game. Tails quickly noted that those couldn’t be matched but matching near them would destroy them. However… single matches didn’t seem to do much other than that…

It didn’t take long for Tails to set up his first combo. It was a simple test, to make sure he could do it. Three yellow Puyos topped with a blue, and one last yellow on top of that. Just match the blue now and…

‘ _YIPPEE_ ~’ another strange voice screeched as it slammed into Robotnik’s panel.

“Why’s mine sound so lame??” Tails whined. Robotnik’s yeehaw had such a gritty growl to it, iconic even! Meanwhile Tails’ attack voice sounded so girly, like he was just a ditzy idiot who got lucky!

“You’re not the main character, so of course you don’t get the better attack sound!” Robotnik said with a laugh. Makes sense. Robotnik thought highly of himself. “Anyway, you’ll have to do better than _that_ if you want to beat me.”

‘ _YIPPEE_ ~ _YIPPEE_ ~!’ the voice interrupted, throwing Robotnik off his game.

“A lucky attack!” He scrambled to move his Puyos about, leaving less time to work with his dramatic appearance.

‘ _YEEHAW! YEEHAW! YEEEEEHAW!_ ’

Sirens blared in Tails’ face, a grinning Robotnik icon appearing over his glass pane. The trash chutes above groaned, heavy and ready to fall at any moment. Tails grit his teeth, clasping the levers in a desperate attempt to concentrate before it was too late.

Tails’ eyes made the mistake of looking over to Sonic and Knuckles again.

The pink liquid had already almost filled the chamber. Sonic frowned, arms crossed as he stood on the tips of his shoes to get his mouth above water. Meanwhile Knuckles was pointing and laughing, treading without a care in the world, even though the ceiling was only a few inches from his head.

“Do you really have to splash me right now?” Sonic’s eyebrow twitched; his rage almost strong enough to evaporate the liquid.

“Considering all the times you made fun of me?” Knuckles gave one final splash onto Sonic’s face. “Yep!”

They weren’t taking this seriously. Which meant Tails had to. It wouldn’t be the first time, and it wouldn’t be the last time.

He still had a little time to move before the trash was on him. With a gulp he unleashed one of his combos he had been building up early, noting it severely lessened the trash unleashed on his side. He let out a tiny sigh of relief, quickly using one hand to wipe the sweat from his brow.

“What? Still alive? After my ultimate attack?” Robotnik seemed about ready to kick his control panel. He quickly shifted gears, grinning again. “It’s no matter. You are at the end of your rope. Look at all those beans you haven’t matched yet on your side! Hohoho! And your friends won’t be lasting much longer anyway.”

Tails didn’t respond, too deep in concentration. As cruel as it might have sounded, he had to put Sonic’s drowning face out of his mind, look away from Knuckles’ realization that he might actually be in serious danger. His hands moved, the levers and contraptions starting to feel more like extensions of himself. This was normal, it usually happened when Tails managed his machines.

The sad little Puyos lined up, his mind calculated the outcome long in advance. According to the amount of trash he had received from just three combos, then this should…

“Hey, Tails, buddy, I don’t mean to rush you or anything,” Knuckles said through sputters, his mouth just barely over the top of the chemicals. The room was all but filled with pink water now. “But we’re running a little short on time, and Sonic isn’t looking so good.”

Sonic still stood in the water, arms crossed, looking a bit bluer(and pinker) than usual. He tapped his foot impatiently, but it was clear he was running out of air. Knuckles let out a defeated sigh and decided maybe helping him a little was worth it. He pulled Sonic up to the top of the chamber, letting the hero get just a few more gasps of air.

“Stop! Ugh, stop trying to run, you’re kicking me!”

“I am not!”

“You are totally still trying to run you idiot!”

“Can’t believe you’re still trying to call me stupid!”

“I’M LITERALLY SAVING YOU RIGHT NOW, BUT MAYBE YOU DESERVE A NICE DUNKING.”

Focus, Tails, focus! Try to put it out of your mind. Your hands are trembling, that’s okay! It’s just the adrenaline. You’re not afraid, you’re just concentrating, you’re just preparing, you’re ready to _win._

Tails nodded to himself. This next pair of Puyos would perfectly pierce Robotnik’s ploys. Knowing full well Sonic and Knuckles were watching, he slammed his lever down, pounding the Puyo with precision.

“Ohoho! Pretty smug for a child that is about to-”

‘Yippee~!’

“About to di-”

‘Yippee!!’

“Er, about to d-”

‘YIPPEE!!’

“I said-”

‘YIPPEE!!!’

“Okay, you can stop now.”

‘ **YIPPEE!!!** ’

“This is ridiculous!”

‘ **YIPPEE!!!!** ’

Sirens blared, steam blasted, the trash chutes above Dr. Robotnik’s panel were straining under the immense weight. They were probably never tested to even hold that much. Things were dire for Sonic and Knuckles, but Tails took in his small moment of glory as the Doctor fretted and fumbled to place his Puyos. There was nowhere to work, nowhere to hide.

“Just give me one second! Argh, you lucky little-!”

Another rain of trash fell. Sweat was practically erupting out of Dr. Robotnik’s greasy pores. Tails sat back, his hands off the lever long ago. He looked over to Knuckles who was completely submerged. Knuckles gave an ecstatic thumbs up, while Sonic er… oh no… he wasn’t looking so great. Deep in Tails’ mind, in a dark place, he had hoped Sonic still saw how great he did and didn’t fall unconscious before that…

With a satisfying scream, Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine collapsed before him, Puyos and trash plopping down into the chemical abyss below. Robotnik fumed, boiling himself in rage and embarrassment. He stomped his lanky feet into the steel platform, pounding his fists into the control panel uselessly.

“Well?” Tails motioned to his trapped friends and Robotnik’s platform which, unsurprisingly, was not sending him to his death.

“I didn’t program it to kill me! I was sure I’d win! Why would I bother?! You cheated anyway!”

Tails sighed. Typical.

“And since you cheated, I see no reason to let you or your little friends escape!” He turned to Tails, waving and grinning in that creepy way of his. “So long, fox boy! Hohohoho!” He dramatically revealed a comically large remote with a single red button on it. Always with the theatrics, he twirled his finger before pressing it, laughing all the way as the tube attempted to suck him up to safety. He got stuck for a moment, his little legs kicking uselessly, and his hands twitching wildly.

Once he finally made his escape, Dr. Robotnik dropped his stupid remote. Tails noted how the platform he was standing on previously had opened up, supposedly meant to send him to his death. Luckily, Tails could fly, so this backstab wasn’t an issue.

However, the main issue was now his drowning friends. Knuckles banged on the walls in his prison uselessly, while Sonic simply floated, finally at a complete stop. He had to get them out of there. More than likely, that stupid button was the answer, but it was on the other side of one of those unbreakable glass panels!

Think Tails, think! Think fast…

‘ _Yipee!_ ’

That’s it! The Puyos and the trash had a direct connection, didn’t they?! In a flash, Tails flew over to his controller, pulling the levers one last time to make a simple match. The lights flared, and a quick signal shot through from Tails’ panel to Robotnik’s, leaving a tiny tube open. Tails flew in like a furry little blur, rolling and pushing through the little bits of Puyo trash on the way.

He quickly flew down the now-open floor of Robotnik’s panel and over to his controls. With some quick thinking, he tinkered with the remote, rewrote some settings, fiddled with the cartoony wire, and pressed it. He hoped with all hope this would work.

The tubes that dropped them in suddenly whirred to life, sucking Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles back through. Luckily the ride was short and spat them out at the edge of Chemical Plant. The plant itself was falling apart yet again, the Mean Bean Machine proving to be as untested, stupid, and dangerous as Tails expected.

Knuckles sputtered pink goo over the yellow panels. Meanwhile Sonic just laid there. Tails looked to Knuckles, using his puppy-fox eyes.

“Oh no. No!” Knuckles cried through sputters. “No! You’re not going to make me do this are you?!”

“Please, Knuckles? You’re the master swimmer here. You know CPR better than I do.”

“I mean you’re right, but!” Knuckles coughed, tears in his eyes both from drowning and the request. “He’s such a jerk and he’s going to look at me weird and…”

“Please?” Tails asked again, making sure to clasp his hands together and look extra cute and sad. Also, he _had_ just saved Knuckles’ life and all…

“Aww, dangit, man!!” Knuckles threw his hands into the air. “I guess I probably shouldn’t let him die, fine! Whatever! Just! Turn around!”

Tails tilted his head. “Why?”

“JUST TURN AROUND, ALL RIGHT?”

Tails blinked but obeyed anyway. If it saved Sonic, it didn’t matter. Whatever helped Knuckles sleep at night.

For a moment, there was nothing but the sound of machinery exploding and metal cracking under pressure as Chemical Plant fell. Then, above all that:

“What the HELL, Knuckles?!” Sonic shouted, sputtering and spitting up both chemical goop and Knuckles spit. Tails wasn’t sure what was worse.

“It’s CPR! I am literally saving your life, don’t be such a baby!”

“You should have let me die!”

“Finally, you’re right about something!”

Tails smiled. It looked like everyone was going to be okay. Maybe Sonic and Knuckles didn’t really notice his efforts, maybe they didn’t appreciate him as much as they should have, but Tails was just happy he could save them. Happy he could help. He’d be sure to keep them in check to the best of his ability. As long as he was there on this adventure, he’d make sure everyone would stay safe.

**Author's Note:**

> I really love Sonic Mania. I've started so many WIPS of different stages over the years and never finished them. Sonic and Mecha Sonic battling on Flying Battery, Knuckles solving the mysteries of Mirage Saloon... but for some reason I was really inspired to finish this one. 
> 
> I think I just really really like Mean Bean Machine music.
> 
> Anyways, I hope you enjoyed! Thank you for reading. I wanted to make another quick little story without worrying too much. It's felt good to write so many small projects like this.


End file.
